BUILDING GRASS-ROOTS, INTENSIVE, RUNOFF WATER MONITORING PROJECTS:THE NORTH DAKOTA DISCOVERY FARMS

Ron Wiederholt, North Dakota State University, Nutrient Management SpecialistGreg Sandness, North Dakota Department of Health, NPS Coordinator

Abstract

Like many states, North Dakota has focused much of its waterquality improvement efforts on decreasing the negative risksassociated with livestock manure runoff. Regulations have beenimposed and significant cost-share dollars have been provided toproducers to better manage livestock facility runoff and comply withregulations. North Dakota producers, regulators, academics andconservation managers all agree there is a continuous need toevaluate alternatives to the practices traditionally used to complywith current regulations. Based on feedback from a grass-rootsteam of affected individuals, a monitoring project was implementedto document the effectiveness of several non-traditional manuremanagement practices. The project, modeled after the WisconsinDiscovery Farms, currently has three farm/ranches enrolled tomonitor water quality trends in beef feedlot runoff and tile draineffluent. The project is a combined effort of the producers, NDSU,USGS and the North Dakota Department of Health.

Introduction

There is a well established group of EPA 319-funded watershedprojects across North Dakota. These projects have been veryeffective at improving manure management within livestockfeeding areas using tried and true methods. North Dakota alsohas a well developed set of regulatory policies addressing runofffrom animal feeding operations (AFO’s). However, to date, therehas been very little data collected to directly evaluate the waterquality impacts of runoff from small and medium AFO’s ormeasure the benefits of practices used to address the impacts.All affected parties in North Dakota have come together toestablish the North Dakota Discovery Farms Program to collectdata from working operations to measure the quality of runoffwater from agricultural lands and livestock feeding areas as wellas document the effectiveness of producer-driven solutions to anyidentified water quality impacts.

Project Design

The North Dakota Discovery Farms are modeled after theWisconsin Discovery Farms. At the beginning of the project, asteering committee consisting of producers, commodity groups,researchers, technical service providers, regulators, and otherstate agency personnel met in mid-2007 to decide what issue tofocus on and select the original two core farms. The focuschosen was runoff from small to medium animal feedingoperations and sites in east-central and central North Dakotawere selected as the first two core farms. Volunteer farms wereidentified through EPA 319 watershed projects that represented abroad geographic area with possible water quality impact. In mid-2008, a third core farm was selected to monitor tile drainage andis located in eastern North Dakota.

Each cooperator is expected to be involved in the project aminimum of 5 years. If a water quality impact is identified, theproducer is the person who will decide what action to take andmonitoring will continue.

Monitoring Protocol

In cooperation with the USGS, gaging stations were placed atchannelized flow locations at each site to capture isolated surfacerunoff from the feeding areas and agricultural fields. Each gagingstation includes a flume to determine flow, an automated,refrigerated ISCO sampler and equipment to transmit data via cellsignal. The samplers can be monitored and operated remotely byUSGS personnel. At each farm, there is weather instrumentation tocapture environmental conditions.

The samples are collected immediately after an event and flow-weighted samples are analyzed for suspended sediment, totaldissolved solids, total nitrogen, ammonium, nitrate , organicnitrogen, total phosphorous (P), dissolved reactive P and chloride.

Figure 4. Gaging station that includes

flume, ISCO sampler and data transmission

equipment.

April-May 2007

Initial contact aboutdeveloping DiscoveryFarms in NDIdentify partnersDevelop Mission andVision

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Jan-May 2008

Collect farm backgroundinformationCollect spring runoffsamples

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Oct-Nov 2008

Install equipment at tiledrain siteReview operation ofother two sites

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June-July 2007

Obtain commitmentfrom partnersIdentify SteeringCommitteeWI Discovery Farmstour

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Sept-Nov 2007

Finalize two sites andmonitoring equipmentlocationsInstall monitoringequipment

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May-Sept 2008

Collect and analyzesummer runoff samplesIdentify and finalize tiledrain site

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2009-???

Develop informationalpieces for each locationCollect and disseminatedata from each site

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North Dakota Discovery Farms Timeline

Figure 1. Aerial photo of feedlot and field surface

runoff monitoring stations at location 1.

Figure 2. Aerial photo of feedlot and field surface

runoff monitoring stations at location 2.

Figure 3. Aerial photo of field surface runoff and tile

drainage monitoring stations at location 3.

Thank You

The ND Discovery Farms project would not be nearly assuccessful without the help of Dennis Frame, Fred Madison andthe rest of the WI Discovery Farms crew.

This project has been funded with grant dollars from the ND EPA319 non-point source pollution program.

Aug-Sept 2007

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Secure fundsIdentify sites andcooperatorsObtain commitmentfrom cooperatorsHeld first steeringcommittee meeting andpicked sites

Cooperators

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Kim and Denise AmannDoyle and Patsy JohannesKent and Sandy BartholomayNDSU Ag Experiment Station

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NDSU Extension ServiceUSGSND Dept. of HealthND Water Commission

ND Discovery Farms Goals

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Encourage responsible livestock development while protectingour natural resources.Ensure a coordinated approach of regulatory practices andpolicies.Document and quantify environmental impacts of farmingpractices.Provide unbiased, reliable information on the relationshipbetween agricultural production and natural resourcemanagement.Provide enhanced communication between farmers,researchers, educators, the general public and regulatoryagencies.Establish a network of working farms to evaluate existing andnew/innovative agricultural land use practices.Provide a platform for agricultural systems research